01The state of the problem

227:1
Scrapes per referral visit — up from 150:1 in one quarter
TollBit, Q2 2026 · 3,906 publishers
68%
US Google searches end without a click. 80–83% when an AI Overview appears
SparkToro / Similarweb, 2026
<1%
Publisher pageviews from AI referrals. One network measures 1 in 6,000
Similarweb · Longitude Ads, 3B pageviews
4%
Users who follow sources behind an AI answer — vs 19% for search
Reuters Institute, DNR 2026
$60.4B ▲ 19%
Google Search revenue, Q1 2026
$7.0B ▼ 4%
Google Network — the line that pays publishers
Alphabet Q1 2026 — same queries, same content, two directions

02The players

1 AI Solution in the room · 0 platforms

AI Platforms & Solutions

Where the money originates — and where the terms are dictated. OpenAI holds ~24 disclosed publisher deals; most of the rest hold one, or none.

OpenAIGoogleMicrosoftMetaAmazonAnthropicPerplexityInline AI
3 connected

Marketplaces

The would-be exchanges of the licensed-content economy: they price, license, deliver, and pay. Many venues, no common rail between them.

TollBitMicrosoft PCMDappierCloudflareProRataSphereAskNewsCashmere
1 connected

Edge & Enforcement

The only place a stated preference becomes an actual gate. CDNs and bot managers decide, request by request, who gets in and at what price.

HUMAN SecurityCloudflareFastlyAkamaiDataDomeKasada
3 in the room · 2 connected

Standards, Provenance & Measurement

Many pens, no single page: declaration, licensing, provenance, and attribution standards are all in flight, none yet universal.

EncypherOpenAttributionRAMPIAB CoMPRSLC2PASPUR
11 companies in the room

Publishers

The source of everything the others trade in — and the only constituency still negotiating one contract at a time.

The New York TimesNews CorpPeople Inc.ParamountYahooFandom+ 5 more
28 companies in the room
Outside the AI ecosystem

Ad Monetization Partners

Prebid's home constituency — SSPs, exchanges, and publisher monetization firms. The largest bloc at our table, and the one with no seat where the AI content market is being designed.

MagnitePubMaticOpenXTripleLiftMicrosoft AdvertisingVerveFreestarRaptiveAditude+ 19 more
10 companies in the room
Outside the AI ecosystem

Tech Partners

The vendors who instrument today's open web — identity, data, engineering. Absent from the conversations shaping the AI content market; PostIndustria, which built the RAMP PoC, is the exception.

Sigma SoftwarePostIndustriaOptableScientiaMobile+ 6 more
orange = in the task force (87 members, 52 companies)  ·  striped = engaged / connected to our table  ·  dashed card = outside the AI content ecosystem today
We don't have the right people in the room

03Where we are

We explored the full solution space before narrowing. What survived is what the ecosystem is actually ready for.

Explored and set aside
Blocking solution Edge solution for easier retrieval Marketplace GEO enabler Marketplace adapters
Current — PARSE + RAMP

PARSE: client-side adapter collapsing N×M marketplace integrations into N+M; marketplace-neutral; TollBit and OpenAttribution interest confirmed. RAMP: open transaction protocol; working PoC, 2 publishers adopting. Together: PARSE welcomes today's players, RAMP builds tomorrow's.

Current — Awareness program

Publisher-side evidence, published: article series documenting the state of the problem with real traffic and revenue data. The instrument for getting the right people into the room.

04PARSE + RAMP

PARSE solves the many-to-many problem for existing players today. RAMP provides the open-source path for new marketplaces tomorrow.

AI SOLUTIONS NORMALIZATION MARKETPLACES CONTENT OWNERS AI solution 1 e.g. Particle AI solution 2 e.g. Brightwave AI solution 3 e.g. Inline PARSE Single integration, all marketplaces Existing marketplace 1 e.g. TollBit Existing marketplace 2 e.g. PCM New via RAMP SSPs, AdTech players RAMP open-source path Publisher 1 Publisher 2 Publisher 3

05Awareness plan

From "what is happening to my traffic" to "how do I evaluate any offer" — each piece useful on its own, in under 15 minutes.

1

The Current State, from a Publisher's Point of View draft ready

The problem, from real publisher logs: automated vs human traffic, infrastructure costs, clawback risk. By Raluca Mitchell.

2

Who Gets Paid When AI Reads the Web?

A reusable map for any offer: who is paid, for what use, on whose terms, through whom, with what proof.

3

Getting Paid in the AI Era

The four monetisation models — pay-per-crawl, pay-per-use, direct deals, attribution pools — and how the money actually moves.

4

The New Tollbooths

Marketplaces and intermediaries compared: fees, pricing, control, and reach.

5

Speaking Machine

robots.txt, llms.txt, RSL, CoMP — what each standard covers, what it doesn't, and which work today.

6

Provenance & Attribution

Proving where content came from and where it's used, once the click disappears.

7

Measuring What Matters Now

From clicks to citations: answer share, citation frequency, GEO alongside SEO.

8

The Rules of the Game

Copyright cases, licensing terms, and regulation shaping every deal.

9

Permissioned content in practice title TBD

Use cases for AI systems built on permissioned content and data.

06Recommendation

Take a stance. Lead the industry.
Get the right people in the room.*

* AI wasn't used to form this objectively AI-y statement